Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) has called for talks to be tabled with Italian regulators to assess possible governance improvements in the running of its fixed line network, CEO Amos Genish said on Wednesday. The proposal came after a series of meetings between Genish, the heads of Italy's communications and competition watchdogs and the Italian industry minister. Telecom Italia (TIM), whose top shareholder is France's Vivendi (VIV.PA), is under pressure from Italian politicians, regulators and rival firms to separate and upgrade its network.

Mediaset's (MS.MI) chief executive said he hoped the shared interest over TV content with Telecom Italia (TIM) (TLIT.MI) could pave the way to a truce with France's Vivendi (VIV.PA), speaking in a interview published late on Sunday. "TIM needs our content, it is very interested in an agreement, but there is a pending matter with their controlling shareholder Vivendi," CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Mediaset and Vivendi have engaged in a legal battle since the French group last year unexpectedly backed out of a deal handing it control of the Milan group's pay-TV unit Premium.

Mediaset's (MS.MI) chief executive said he hoped the shared interest over TV content with Telecom Italia (TIM) (TLIT.MI) could pave the way to a truce with France's Vivendi (VIV.PA), speaking in a interview published late on Sunday. "TIM needs our content, it is very interested in an agreement, but there is a pending matter with their controlling shareholder Vivendi," CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Mediaset and Vivendi have engaged in a legal battle since the French group last year unexpectedly backed out of a deal handing it control of the Milan group's pay-TV unit Premium.

While the company opted to spend more time developing the new games, it said sales of its back catalog remained strong. Ubisoft has seen its share price almost double year-to-date, boosted by higher-than-expected sales and speculation about a takeover bid from French media giant Vivendi (VIV.PA).

The board of Telecom Italia (TIM) (TLIT.MI) will this week discuss options for its fixed-line network, including possibly splitting it off, although no decision is expected to be made, a source close to the company said on Sunday. The pressure has intensified since French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA), TIM's biggest shareholder with a 24 percent stake, began to exert greater influence, raising concerns within the Italian government, which considers the network a strategic national asset. The source said recently appointed CEO Amos Genish, a former Vivendi top executive, would give an outline of his 2018-2020 business plan to the board on Dec. 5.

The board of Telecom Italia (TIM) will this week discuss options for its fixed-line network, including possibly splitting it off, although no decision is expected to be made, a source close to the company said on Sunday. The pressure has intensified since French media group Vivendi, TIM's biggest shareholder with a 24 percent stake, began to exert greater influence, raising concerns within the Italian government, which considers the network a strategic national asset. The source said recently appointed CEO Amos Genish, a former Vivendi top executive, would give an outline of his 2018-2020 business plan to the board on Dec. 5.

MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - Hopes for a settlement in a legal dispute between Mediaset (MS.MI) and France's Vivendi (VIV.PA) over a soured pay-TV deal drove shares in the Italian broadcaster as much as 7.5 percent higher on Friday. The two companies have been at loggerheads since last year after Vivendi backtracked on a deal to buy Mediaset Premium, the pay-TV business of a group controlled by the family of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Sources close to the matter have said the two sides are in talks over a possible deal, with Vivendi hoping to reach an agreement before a Dec. 19 court hearing in Milan on the case.

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has reached a $90 million settlement of shareholder claims arising from the sexual harassment scandal at its Fox News Channel, which cost the jobs of longtime news chief Roger Ailes and anchor Bill O'Reilly.

BARCELONA/LONDON (Reuters) - Vivendi's (VIV.PA) Universal Music Group (UMG) could be worth more than $40 billion (£30.3 billion), Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine said on Friday, helping to buoy shares in the French media group after third-quarter results in which UMG was a highlight. Vivendi has floated the idea that UMG, the world's biggest music label, could be ripe for a stock market listing, boosting the group's shares in recent months amid concerns about its investments in Italy.

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Acquisitive French media conglomerate Vivendi (VIV.PA) missed analysts estimates in third-quarter earnings and ruled out a hostile takeover of Ubisoft for the next six months after the video games maker beat forecasts, pushing its shares to a record high. Vivendi however kept its 2017 outlook for revenue to increase more than 5 percent and for a rise of around 25 percent in its EBITA, prior to its integration of the Havas business. Vivendi's third-quarter EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) rose 5.7 percent from a year ago to 293 million euros ($345 million), while its revenue increased by 19.3 percent to 3.18 billion euros.

Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) is open to commercial agreements with broadband rival Open Fiber but is not interested in the idea of merging their networks, the group's CEO told a series of Italian newspapers. "Italy is big enough to have two competing networks," Amos Genish was quoted as saying by Il Sole 24 Ore on Tuesday. Open Fiber, controlled by utility Enel (ENEI.MI) and state lender CDP, is currently rolling out an ultrafast broadband network to compete with Telecom Italia (TIM).

Italian broadcaster Mediaset's (MS.MI) directors proposed on Friday a change in the size of its board and in the way its members are appointed, in a move that could restrict French shareholder Vivendi's (VIV.PA) influence. The Milan-based group, owned by the family of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is suing Vivendi in court after the French media giant last year backtracked on a deal to buy Mediaset's Italian pay-TV unit Premium. The rift between the two groups deepened when Vivendi became Mediaset's second largest shareholder in December last year after quickly amassing a stake of 28.8 percent.

Telecom Italia's (TIM) (TLIT.MI) quarterly results fell short of forecasts, dragged lower by litigation costs and severance payments in a tumultuous year for the former state monopoly. TIM lost its chief executive in July as top shareholder Vivendi (VIV.PA) tightened its grip on the company. Then last month Italy's government, alarmed at the French company's growing influence, activated a "golden power" to have a say in TIM's strategic decisions.

Italian Industry Minister Carlo Calenda said on Friday that Telecom Italia's (TIM) (TLIT.MI) fixed-line network should be spun off from the rest of the company and listed. Italian politicians have been calling off and on since 2006 for TIM's network to be transferred to a state-controlled entity as Rome considers it a strategic asset that should be a neutral platform open to all phone companies. The network issue returned to the forefront of political debate when French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) built a 24 percent stake in TIM, becoming its top investor and increasingly calling the shots at Italy's biggest phone group.

China's Orient Hontai has agreed to buy a majority stake in Spanish sports rights group Imagina for $1 billion (758.67 million pounds), the latest deal from deep-pocketed Chinese investors to transform the Asian country into a global soccer powerhouse. Imagina, usually just known as Mediapro after the name of one of its subsidiaries, has the rights to distribute the La Liga soccer championship, Europe's third-richest league. The Chinese private equity firm had reached a preliminary deal with three of Imagina's shareholders to buy a 54 percent stake, Imagina founder and chairman Jaume Roures told Reuters in an interview.

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - Italy told Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) on Monday that it wants to have a say in all its strategic decisions, in the strongest sign so far that Rome intends to rein in the growing influence of French group Vivendi over the former state monopoly. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni signed a decree activating the so-called "golden power" on Telecom Italia (TIM) after Vivendi (VIV.PA), now TIM's biggest investor with a 24 percent stake, tightened its grip on the company.

Italy's cabinet on Friday passed a decree to force investors that build up minority stakes of at least 10 percent in Italian listed companies to disclose what their intentions are on final ownership. The change, aimed at warding off hostile foreign takeovers, comes as French media company Vivendi (VIV.PA) is under scrutiny in Italy for its stake-building in Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) and in broadcaster Mediaset (MS.MI). The new rules on takeovers signals protectionist sentiment is on the rise in Italy after years of relatively open approach to foreign acquisitions which French companies, in particular, have taken advantage of.

ROME, Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) 13 (Reuters) - Italy's cabinet on Friday passed a decree to force investors that build up minority stakes of at least 10 percent in Italian listed companies to disclose what their intentions are on final ownership. The change, aimed at warding off hostile foreign takeovers, comes as French media company Vivendi (LSE: 0IIF.L - news) is under scrutiny in Italy for its stake-building in Telecom Italia (Amsterdam: TI6.AS - news) and in broadcaster Mediaset (LSE: 0NE1.L - news) . The new rules on takeovers signals protectionist sentiment is on the rise in Italy after years of relatively open approach to foreign acquisitions which French companies, in particular, have taken advantage of.